‘Mississippi got it right’: Herrington sentenced to serve decades in murder of ‘Jay’ Lee
OXFORD, Miss. (WLBT) – Timothy Herrington Jr. has been sentenced to 50 years, with 10 years suspended, in the murder of Ole Miss student Jimmie “Jay” Lee.
Herrington’s sentence is broken down as follows:
• 30 years for second-degree murder
• 10 years for tampering with evidence
• 5 years of supervised post-release
• 5 years of unsupervised post-release
On Monday, Herrington pleaded guilty to the murder of Lee, who went missing in the summer of 2022. Herrington was set to be retried this week after a previous trial ended without a unanimous verdict.
Lee, who was 20 at the time, went missing on July 8, 2022. Two weeks later, Herrington, who was also a student at Ole Miss, was arrested as a suspect and charged with capital murder.
After previously denying it, in an interview with the police soon after his arrest, Herrington confessed that he and Lee had a sexual relationship.
At Herrington’s trial last year, prosecutors said that Lee went to see Herrington in the early morning hours of July 8 – the day of his disappearance.
Before meeting Lee that morning, Herrington had allegedly Googled “How long does it take to strangle someone?”
Prosecutors would also show the jury footage of what they said was Herrington driving Lee’s car to the Molly Barr Trails apartments and abandoning it. The car was towed two days later.
Later that same day, prosectors said Herrington would go to Walmart and buy duct tape, before getting clothes dry cleaned, and making a stop at his parents’ home to collect a shovel.
However, the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict due to the fact that Lee’s body was still missing. The judge declared a mistrial.
Then, in February of 2025, Lee’s body would be found in Carroll County, Mississippi.
Days later, a grand jury issued a new two-count indictment against Herrington for capital murder and evidence tampering connected to Lee’s death.
Last month, the medical examiner said Lee’s cause and manner of death couldn’t be determined because of the condition of the remains.
After being handed his sentence, Judge John Kelly Luther stated that the court is “acutely” aware that the nation’s eyes have been on this case from the beginning.
“The state of Mississippi does not have a good reputation in matters concerning this, quite frankly,” Luther said.
This, the judge continued, was because “Mr. Lee lived a lifestyle that was different” from most people in Mississippi. Because of this, Luther assumed that many in the country thought there would not be justice in Lee’s murder.
“I want the world to know,” Luther said, “that Mississippi got it right this time.”
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